Posts Tagged ‘computers’

As Charlotte-Mecklenburg, Mooresville, and Iredell County schools break for the summer and it’s too hot go go outside around Lake Norman, gaming season is on again – and the scammers know it. Be wary as the scam “free game codes” sites start proliferating across the web. Malwarebytes’ Unpacked led us to three nasty scam sites that promise free Steam codes to gamers. The first, freesteamcodes(dot)net, promises gamers free codes if they simply answer a few questions – which turns into a chance for you to give up your friends email addresses so they can get spammed. Don’t do it! Additionally, the progress bar for the “validation” is bogus and never ends. The second, steamingame(dot)com, is similar in having you send a link to a bogus website to all your friends. Again, you’ll get nothing but a possible virus when the bogus site is infected. And lastly, steam-wallet(dot)com, which has a countdown to pressure you into spamming for them. In all three, you’re not going to get anything except misery. Avoid these scam site and happy summertime gaming!

Today has been really disconcerting because of some of issues we have faced with our industry peers.
One of our clients was having Roku issues so she googled for help on the internet where she found a 1-800 number that connected her with an individual overseas. The young man speaking broken English ensured her that he could help her with her Roku but he would have to connect to her PC. She gave him access for a remote support session which he used to “show” her all the infections that she had on her laptop and claimed that those infections were the reason her Roku wasn’t working. He stated that he could solve her Roku issues but he’d need a credit card number and the virus removal would cost her $299. We had cleaned her computer last week and she called me because she was told that her computer was full of infections. I told her not to give the individual a credit card number and that I was on my way. When I got to her home, she was still online with the guy. I power-cycled her Roku and it was working within 30 seconds. I took over the chat with the individual from overseas. He continued to claim that he needed to get a credit card number to remove the viruses. I texted him that the Roku was fine but he continued to claim that he needed to remove the infections to fix it. I told him that the Roku was working but he stood by his statement that the infections were massive and he needed to get a credit card to get them removed. I texted that I was Tim Grier with CET Computer Repair and that I had power-cycled the Roku which was now working fine and our conversation needed to come to an end – he immediately disconnected. I removed the software that the individual had installed on our client’s system and completed a full system scan – there were no infections whatsoever.
It’s scary how far our industry has fallen – scammers, liars, and crooks. I know that our lawmakers can’t do much about overseas’ charlatans but they seem to be making it easier for them to prey on our citizens. What’s more disconcerting is those who are right here locally.
A second client had brought in a system earlier in the week with a corrupted Windows 7 operating system. We couldn’t install service pack 1 but there was no license key on the system. I “band-aided” the system and asked if she could please ask the individual who had installed the Windows 7 Ultimate operating system to give her the license key. She contacted us today stating that her system was running very slow. I asked if she had received the license key but she said that she had asked “the other guy” but he didn’t give her the license key, he had to take the system and “fix” it. It did have service pack 1 installed but the operating system was so corrupted that it wouldn’t even run a virus scan – after 10 hours, it had only scanned a little over 6000 files. It’s obvious the operating system is pirated. There’s nothing we can do – we don’t deal in pirated software.
Scammers, liars and crooks! Don’t be deceived. CET isn’t the only legitimate service provider in the area – there are several good guys out there – but there are also far too many con-artists in our industry too. Please, be careful – don’t be a victim!

Safeguarding your data files, including your emails, is, in most instances, extremely important and, in general, very simple. Backups of data files to online sources, external drives, or network locations are among the multitude of options to ensure you do not lose your files or emails due to hard drive crashes. The United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team, a division of the United States Department of Homeland Security, helps establish guidelines in their published Security Tip (ST06-008).
Lost emails can be very detrimental to your business – even causing possible legal actions to be taken against you or your organization. If you are using an email program like Outlook, you should regularly backup your .pst or .ost database to ensure compliance with government authorities like the United States Internal Revenue Service. Hard copies of emails are also an effective option for ensuring that important documents are not lost or destroyed and are often dictated by your organization’s standard operating procedures.
reference: http://www.us-cert.gov/ncas/tips/ST06-008